Departing city attorney seeks raises exceeding 5% for 4 assistants

As he prepares to leave his post, Springfield’s acting top city attorney has asked the city council to approve raises of more than 5 percent for four lawyers in his office.

Acting Corporation Counsel John Mehlick, whose resignation takes effect Saturday, has requested the raises for Linda O’Brien, Steven Rahn, Krista Appenzeller and Jason Brokaw, all of whom have the title of assistant corporation counsel.

An ordinance authorizing the raises was on the council’s agenda for a first reading Tuesday, the day before Mayor Mike Houston’s office announced Mehlick’s resignation. The money for the raises would come from the office’s budget for the current fiscal year, which ends Feb. 28. The draft ordinance does not list the percentages of the proposed raises for each of the four attorneys.

The proposal is up for discussion at Tuesday’s city council committee of the whole meeting.

A 2007 ordinance requires council approval for raises of more than 5 percent in a 12-month period, unless an employee’s job title changes or a union contract requires the increase.

That measure passed after former corporation counsel Jenifer Johnson’s salary was budgeted for a 12 percent increase for the second straight year. Johnson held the post from 2003 to 2011 during the administration of Mayor Tim Davlin, her cousin.

O’Brien has been with the city about eight years, and the others have been with the city about two years. The average salary for the four attorneys is a little more than $55,000, according to city salary figures.

The average salary for a lawyer in the Springfield metropolitan area was $105,460 in May 2012, according to the most recent data available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median income for individuals in the city of Springfield with graduate or professional degrees is $63,835, according to the most recent three-year estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Houston did not respond Monday to a request for comment on the proposed raises.

Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards said that, while he’s “not a guy who likes to hand out a bunch of raises,” this proposal seems appropriate and necessary to retain and recruit qualified attorneys to work for the city.

“If we’re wanting to retain people to come in and help us and keep us out of the kind of messes we tend to get into, I think it’s reasonable to raise their salaries,” Edwards said.

The Office of Corporation Counsel’s responsibilities include giving legal advice and writing legal opinions; drafting ordinances and reviewing their legality at the request of the mayor, aldermen or other city officials; and representing the city in court and other legal proceedings, according to the city website. The office also is responsible for enforcing city code violations.

The office has 17 employees — including the corporation counsel and seven assistants — and a budget of a little more than $1.5 million.

Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said Mehlick should give employees raises that don’t exceed the 5 percent cap, which he can do at his discretion as along as there is enough money in his office’s budget.

As for bigger raises, McMenamin said those should wait until Houston names Mehlick’s replacement.

“Any raise beyond 5 percent, which would require ordinance, should be held to allow the next city attorney to make his evaluation and to adjust salaries based on his evaluation over a period of time,” McMenamin said. “So I hope that our city council holds that ordinance in committee pending appointment of the next city attorney.”

Houston has said he plans to name Mehlick’s successor “in the relatively near future.”

It remains unclear if the next person to hold the office will do so permanently or on an interim basis.

Mehlick, a retired associate judge, took the temporary position in August following the departure of Mark Cullen, who resigned amid an ongoing controversy about the destruction of police internal affairs records that were subject of an open-records request.

After Mehlick’s resignation was announced, Houston said Mehlick decided to move on after helping negotiate the proposed settlement of a lawsuit stemming from the destruction of those records.

The settlement, which also is up for discussion Tuesday, would pay more than $100,000 to Calvin Christian III — who requested the records that were later destroyed — and his attorneys. The city would not be required to admit any liability.

Mehlick’s replacement will be the fifth person Houston has appointed to the position on an interim or permanent basis in less than three years in office.